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Are Germans opting out of travel to stay at home and travel domestically?

Amidst fears of contracting the coronavirus, many Germans are choosing to stay at home to avoid getting infected. Instead of the normal travel plans, they are opting to travel domestically. Germany already opened up its borders to members of the EU and this was recently announced by German Foreign minister Heiko Maas who said that Germany will remove a travel ban on EU member states and this should also affect other countries, from June 15th.  The easing of travel restrictions applies to passport-free Schengen-area countries as well as the UK and while travel is current being debated it is still advised that warning be given to travel safe and that the lifting of the travel ban is not an invitation to travel necessarily, unless urgent need arises.

 “Travel guidelines are not necessarily an invitation to travel,” he said. “For example, we do not recommend non-essential travel to the UK while they have a 14-day quarantine period in place.” “We must not let this lull us into a false sense of security,” he wrote on Twitter. “COVID-19 is not over. We have to work together to make sure that reopening of tourism does not lead to a second wave, either here in Germany or elsewhere.”

In a recent public holiday, people in Germany could be sighted even going to the seaside resort of Binz on the island of Ruegen, another point to note was that not many people were donning masks and observing social distance rules. Many people were just excited to have things go back to a fraction of normal as the coronavirus lockdown period a taken a toll and the social restrictions making things worse for those who enjoy the company of people the most.

A lot of travel companies had taken note that even before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic there was already fear in the air and people were opting to travel less and if they should feel they needed to, taking domestic trips around Germany.